Disc attachment for grading equipment



April 19, 1966 D. J. MILLER 3,246,407

DISC ATTACHMENT FOR GRADING EQUIPMENT Filed Nov. 18, 1963 3 Sheets-Sheet l I r-llllll D445 I. M E2 INVENTOR.

AGENT April 19, 1966 NHLLER 3,246,407

DISC ATTACHMENT FOR GRADING EQUIPMENT Filed Nov. 18, 1963 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 DALE J. MILL-E2 INVENTOR.

AGE-MT A ril 19, 1966 D. J. MILLER 3,246,407

DISC ATTACHMENT FOR GRADING EQUIPMENT Filed Nov. 18, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 .ZZ zlO e4 b 1244.5 J. MILLER INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,246,407 DISC ATTACHMENT FOR GRADING EQUIPMENT Dale J. Miller, 16549 Brookport St., Covina, Calif. Filed Nov. 18, 1963, Ser. No. 324,464 4 Claims. (Cl. 37-145) The invention herein described pertains to grading equipment, and more particularly to an attachment that may be affixed to the mold board of a scraper in order to make discs available for grading operations and for mixing materials on the surface of streets and other highways.

In the typical disc grader or plow, the discs are provided with hubs that are used to mount the discs on a common shaft that passes through their centers. The presence of the shaft between the discs obviously limits the depth of the cut. It is accordingly an important object of the present invention to eliminate this connecting shaft and to provide other means for mounting the discs.

Another object is to provide superior means for connecting the multiple-disc attachment to the mold board.

Afurther object is the provision of means for adjusting the relative position of the discs with respect to the mold board and to provide a construction for the adjusting' means that will be durable and easy to lock or clamp in adjusted position.

Still another object is to provide means individual to each disc for adjusting it angularly with respect to its support sothat worn sections of the disc may be moved out of engageable. position with respect to the road bed and an unworn peripheral section brought to the angular position formerly occupied by the edge that has become worn.

An additional object is to make it possible to remove any disc from its mounting post simply and quickly.

Another object is to make it possible for an individual disc, together with its mounting post, to be completely removed from the balance of the equipment without affecting the mounting of the remaining discs.

This invention possesses many other advantages, and has other objects which may be made more clearly apparent from a consideration of representative embodiments of this invention. For this purpose, two such embodiments are shown in the drawings accompanying and forming a part of the present specification. These embodiments will now be described in detail, illustrating the general principles of the invention; but it is to be understood that this detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, since the scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view, partly broken away, of the disc assembly mounted on the mold board of a road grader, various portions of the supporting equipment being shown in the upper part of the figure;

FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of the structure for attaching the disc assemblies to the mold board;

FIG. 3 is a section taken substantially on line 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail of the serrated arrangement for locking some of the parts shown in other figures in their adjusted positions;

FIG. 5 is a front view of a portion of the equipment shown in perspective in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a portion of the means for mounting the discs, parts of the disc and associated components being cut away to reveal the internal construction;

FIG. 7 is a broken-away view taken substantially on line77 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a View taken on line v 8-8 ofiFlG. 6;

FIG. 9 illustrates another embodiment of my invention,

this view being simliar to the view shown in FIG. 2 of the previously described embodiment; and

FIG. 10 is a plan view taken substantially on line 1010 of FIG. 9.

Mold boards or scrapers are conventionally carried on power-operated grading equipment by means of brackets that are attached to opposite sides of a so-called circle or bull ring. Such a circle 11 is shown in FIG. 1. Portions of one of the brackets that attach the mold board 12 to the circle 11 may be seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, where they are designated by the numeral 13. Another mounting bracket, which does not show in any of the figures of the instant application, is attached to the opposite side of the circle 11. These two brackets are sometimes known as rams horns.

Grading machines are commonly equipped with powerdriven apparatus for raising and lowering the circle 11 in order to bring the scraper or mold board into engagement with the road bed and to raise it therefrom. When the multiple'disc attachment that is the subject of this disclosure is connected to the mold board, the same apparatus used for raising or lowering the mold board may be used instead for raising or lowering the discs.

Portions of a typical mobile road grader may be seen in the upper part of FIG. 1. Member 15, links 16 and 17, and the shaft 18 are parts of the conventional hydraulically operated apparatus that raises, lowers or rotates the bull ring 11 in order to place the discs in a desired position with respect to the road bed 19.

To permit the adjustment of the cutting angle of the mold board 12 for its conventional uses and to control the movement of material to one end or other of the mold board as the grader moves forward, the bull ring must be rotatable in a horizontal plane. The means by which this is accomplished forms no part of the present invention per se, but it is mentioned here for the reason that when the present multiple-disc assembly is attached to the mold board, the same hydraulic or other means normally employed for maneuvering the mold board are used to change the angle of the discs 14 with respect to the road bed and for bringing them into or out of engagement with the material to be worked upon.

Each of the discs 14 is individually mounted, in a manner later to be described, upon a post 20. These posts are removably carried by an elongated member 21 that is preferably hollow and of a square cross-sectional configuration.

The elongated member, tube or beam 21 is carried by the mold board 12 by means of a pair of bracket assemblies, designated generally by the numerals 22 and 22a, that are positioned between the beam and the mold board and securely afilxed to both of them in a manner hereinafter set forth. The mold board 12 is conventionally connected to the lower portion of the rams horn 13 by an intermediate member 23 that is rigidly secured to them both. Member 23 may be seen in FIGS. 2 and 9, each of these figures showing a different embodiment of the invention disclosed herein. In the preferred form shown in FIG. 4, member 24 is a heavy plate; but in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, the counterpart of the previously mentioned member 24 is a heavy casting 24a.

The embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 will now be described.

The casting 24a comprises two lugs 25 and 26 that are at right angles to each other and to the mainbody of the casting. The upper lug 25 serves to mount a hook or clamping member 27 that cooperates with a bifurcated clamping member 28 to attach the assembly 22 to the mold board 12. Member 27 is provided with a through hole 29 through which a bolt 30 passes, this bolt being threaded into the lug 25. The upper end of bolt 30 carries a spacing washer 31 and a nut 32 to limit the upward movement of member 27 with respect to the screw. The lower hooking member 28 is mounted on a short shaft 33 that also extends through the bracket 24a and the segmental element 35 which are interposed between the arms of the hooking member 28, as best Sl11OW11 in FIG. 3. Cotter pins 34 hold the shaft 33 in p ace.

It will be observed in FIG. 2 that an imaginary line drawn from the center of shaft 33 to the bottom of the recess 36 that adjoins the hook on member 28 is substantially parallel to the rotational axis of the screw 30. It should thus be clear that when member 28 is hooked over the lower edge of the mold board 12 and a hook 27 fastened over the upper edge of the mold board, the tightening down of nut 32 will move bracket 24a and the hook member 28 upwardly with respect to the top hook 27 until the mold board is firmly clamped between these hooking members.

Bolt 37 may be rotatably adjusted so that its end exerts a force against the concave surface of the mold board, thus moving bracket 24a away from the mold board and further tightening the hooking members and the bracket 24a in their adjusted position. Bolt 37 is provided with a lock nut 39 to secure the bolt in its adjusted position with respect to the flange 26.

The bracket or segmental element 35 through which the shaft 33 passes has an arcuate outer edge 40 that is rigidly connected to the square tube 21 by means of a short bracket 41 that is welded or otherwise appropriately secured to member 21 and to the segmental bracket element 35, and the lower portion of the arcuate edge 40 is welded directly to the adjoining portion 42 of member 21 at 43. A similar segmental bracket is of course included in the bracket assembly 22a at the opposite end of the elongated supporting tube or beam 21, but it is not visible in any of the figures; and inasmuch as it is a symmetrical duplicate of bracket 35 as it appears in FIG. 2, it is not individually illustrated.

Bracket 35 and its counterpart at the opposite end of the supporting member 21 are angularly adjustable about their pivots so that the discs 14 may be raised or lowered with respect to the mold board 12. Means are provided whereby the segmental brackets or elements may be locked in their adjusted angular positions. This is accomplished by means of a bolt 45 that passes through a clamping member 46 and then through a slot 44 in element 35 to be threaded into the large bracket 24a. The segmental bracket element 35 is provided with serrations 47 on opposite sides of the arcuate slot 44, these serrations being aligned with the center of the shaft 33 around which element 35 is pivoted. The clamping member 46 is provided with serrations that mate with those in bracket 35, as shown in FIG. 3.

If the angular position of bracket element 35 and its counterpart at the opposite end of member 21 are to be adjusted at any time to move the discs 14 either up or down, the bolt 45 and its counterpart in the assembly 22a are loosened so that the segmental brackets may be moved as freely as the weight that they carry will permit, and then they are locked in their newly adjusted angular positions by tightening the bolt 45 so that the mating serrations 48 and 47 on the clamp 46 and element 35, respectively, will be locked together as shown in FIG. 4.

In order to facilitate the attachment of the discs 14 to the posts 20, intermediate means are provided as shown in FIG. 6. A screw 49, having a tapered head, is provided for each of the discs, this screw passing through the center of the disc and then through a hole 50 in the hub member 51 and thence through a hole 52 in the lower end of the post 20. The end of screw 49 that protrudes from the opposite side of member 20 carries a lock nut 54. The tapered head of screw 49 nests within the tapered walls 53 of the central mounting hole of the disc.

Each of the posts 26 has a mating recess 55 in one side to receive the hub 51 of the associated 'disc'. This hub has a annular flange 56 that is cupped to receive the convex outer surface 79 of the disc. Each of the discs is provided with a concentric circle of through holes 57' to selectively receive a pin 58 that is rigidly secured in the hub 51. The portions of the periphery of the discs that engage the ground of course become worn in time, and the plurality of mounting holes 57 makes it possible to reorient the discs so that unworn portions may be brought into service. This requires that nut 54 on the screw 49 first be loosened sufiiciently to permit the disc to be withdrawn far enough from the hub 51 for pin 58 to clear the particular mounting hole 57 in which it has been located. The pin must then be inserted in one of the holes 57 that will bring an unused portion of the disc of the bottom. After the disc has been thus reindexed, the screw 49 and the lock nut 54 must of course be retightened.

Each of the posts 20 is mounted in the tube or beam 21 by means of individual mounting holes provided in the beam. Such mounting holes 59 are shown or indicated in FIGS. 2, 6, 8 and 16. These mounting holes are made enough wider than the post 26 to accommodate a tightening wedge 61 best shown in FIGS. 2, 8 and 10. The tightening Wedges 60 are each provided with a head 61 which overhangs the main body of the wedge to form an abutment 62 that may be used to pry the wedge out of its wedging position, or the wedge may be pounded out from the bottom end 63, FIGS. 2 and 8. The enlarged end 61 alsoprovides a means for driving the wedge into the intermediate space between the post 20 and the edge of the hole 59 through which it extends in the beam 21. This mounting arrangement makes it possible to insert the posts as far as may be desired into the beam 21 in order to align the bottom portions of all the discs or to place them in any desired spacial relationship with respect to the bottom surface of the beam 21; and the posts and discs may of course be removed and replaced as may be desired by the owner or operator of the equipment.

FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate an alternative mounting arrangement for attaching the beam 21 to its mounting on the mold board 12. As previously mentioned, the bracket 24 of this embodiment is a heavy, flat plate. This plate is pivoted on a short shaft which is anchored in an arm 64 that is integrally joined to a channel-shaped member 65 which has two oppositely disposed legs 66 and 67, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10.

The end of the short shaft 80 that is remote from the member 24 is journalled in an L-shaped bracket 68 attached at 69 to the plate 24. This arrangement eliminates side play of the member 24 as it pivots about the shaft 81).

A block 70 is pivotally mounted on a pair of concentric stub shafts Hand 72 that are rigidly secured in brackets 24 and 68, as perhaps best shown in FIG. 10. The pivoted block 70 has rigidly secured therein a shaft 73 which is concentric with shaft 74. The adjoining ends of shafts '73 and 74 are oppositely threaded to be received in the turnbuckle 75. The upper end of shaft 74 threadedly bears a hook 271) that engages the mold board 12 in the same manner as does the hook 27 in the previously described embodiment. The lower end of plate 24 is notched at 76 to provide a book 77 to fasten over the lower edge of the mold board. As the turnbuckle 75 is turned in the direction that brings the adjoining ends of shafts 73 and 74 closer together, it will be clear that the hook 77 will firmly grasp the lower end of the mold board and that the hooked end of the clamping hook 27b and the legs 66 and 67 of the channel bracket 65 will firmly engages the mold board thus anchoring the bracket member 24 securely thereto.

The segmental member 35b is pivoted on a shaft 76, whose opposite ends are anchored in bracket 24 and a second L-shaped bracket 81 that is secured to bracket 24 at 78.

The segmental member 35b, like the previously described segment 35, has an arcuate slot therein. This slot 44b is clearly shown in FIG. 9. The surface of the segment 35b is serrated in the manner set forth in the pre viously described embodiment. A shoulder bolt 45b is threaded through the serrated nut 4612, which is the counterpart of nut 46 shown in FIG. 2. Bolt 45b is threaded into member 24 to lock the segment 35b in its adjusted position on bracket 24.

In order more clearly to illustrate the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 9, as well as that shown in previously described figures, the segment 35b is shown rotated clockwise as far as possible, while segment 35 in FIG. 2 is shown in its extreme counterclockwise position. It will be noted in FIG. 9 that the clockwise movement of segment 3515 has raised the elongated beam 21 much closer to the mold board 12 than it is shown in FIG. 2 where the segment 35 is pictured at the opposite extreme of its possible movement. The extreme downward positions of the beam 231), the post 201) and the disc 14b are indicated in FIG. 9 in broken lines, While in the FIG. 2 embodiment the extreme upper adjustment of beam 21 and disc 14 is shown in broken lines.

In keeping with conventional practice, the discs 14 are of course not flat, but are saucer-shaped; and they are disposed at an angle with respect to the mold board 12 and the beam 21, as shown in FIGS. 1, 5 and 8. This angular relationship is made possible by the angular orientation of the holes 59 in the elongated mounting beam 21, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 10.

Various modifications may of course be made in the illustrative embodiments herein described, and any of the components may be omitted and replaced by others performing the same function or the same function plus an additional one. Moreover, various parts may be re arranged and transposed-all without departing from the broad spirit of my invention as succinctly set forth in the appended claims.

The inventor claims:

1. A multiple disc attachment for the mold board of a surface grader, said attachment including: an elongated beam member having a plurality of openings therethrough extending perpendicularly of said member, said openings being spaced longitudinally of said members; a plurality of posts each removably secured in one of said openings and extending perpendicularly therethrough in parallel relationship to the other posts; a plurality of generally saucer-shaped discs each removably secured to one side of one of said posts adjacent one end thereof; and instrurnentalities for removably mounting said beam member on said mold board in parallel relationship thereto whereby the disc may be raised or lowered with respect to the ground by raising or lowering the mold board, said instrumentalities comprising a plurality of spaced bracket assemblies each secured to the beam member and each having means for attaching the assembly to the mold board, each of said bracket assemblies comprising (a) a first bracket structure provided with a first hook member to attach it to the top edge of the mold board and a second hook member to attach it to the bottom edge of the mold board, (b) a second bracket structure attached to said beam member and so pivoted to said first bracket structure that the amount that said disc extend below the bottom edge of the mold board may be varied by the relative angular positions of said bracket structures, and (c) means for releasably locking the bracket structures together in adjusted angular relationship.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which one of said bracket structures has an arcuate slot therein concentric with the axis around which the second bracket structure is pivoted to the first bracket structure, the bracket structure that is not provided wih said slot carrying a bolt that passes through said slot, said bolt threadedly bearing a nut to clamp said bracket structures together in adjusted angular relationship.

3. The combination set forth in claim 2 in which the slotted structure is provided on each side of the slot with serrations aligned with its pivoted axis and in which the nut carried by said bolt is provided with serrations that match the serrations in the slotted structure to lock the slotted structure securely with respect to the bolt.

4. The combination set forth in claim 1 with the addition of means for spacing the first bracket structure from the mold board, said means comprising an element pivotally secured to the first bracket structure and having a pair of spaced legs for engaging the mold board and distributing the pressure exerted by said means upon said mold board for dividing the pressure exerted by said means between two locations on the mold board.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 949,696 2/1910 Bradley 172-691 1,007,604 10/1911 Quickel 27-735 X 1,391,593 9/1921 Sweeting 172-168 X 2,036,598 4/ 1936 Miller et al 37-145 2,746,371 5/1956 Cook 172-604 2,864,296 12/1958 Silver et a1. 172-574 X 2,992,499 7/1961 McSpadden 37-145 3,083,954 4/1963 Brolin 37-145 X 3,136,078 6/1964 Renault 37-146 ABRAHAM G. STONE, Primary Examiner.

T. GRAHAM CRAVER, WILLIAM A. SMITH III,

Examiners. 

1. A MULTIPLE DISC ATTACHMENT FOR THE MOLD BOARD OF A SURFACE GRADER, SAID ATTACHMENT INCLUDING: AN ELONGATED BEAM MEMBER HAVING A PLURALITY OF OPENINGS THERETHROUGH EXTENDING PERPENDICULARLY OF SAID MEMBER, SAID OPENINGS BEING SPACED LONGITUDINALLY OF SAID MEMBERS; A PLURALITY OF POSTS EACH REMOVABLY SECURED IN ONE OF SAID OPENINGS AND EXTENDING PERPENDICULARLY THERETHROUGH IN PARALLEL RELATIONSHIP TO THE OTHER POSTS; A PLURALITY OF GENERALLY SAUCER-SHAPED DISCS EACH REMOVABLY SECURED TO ONE SIDE OF ONE OF SAID POSTS ADJACENT ONE END THEREOF; AND INSTRUMENTALITIES FOR REMOVABLY MOUNTING SAID BEAM MEMBER ON SAID MOLD BOARD IN PARALLEL RELATIONSHIP THERETO WHEREBY THE DISC MAY BE RAISED OR LOWERED WITH RESPECT TO THE GROUND BY RAISING OR LOWERING THE MOLD BOARD, SAID INSTRUMENTALITIES COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF SPACED BRACKET ASSEMBLIES EACH SECURED TO THE BEAM MEMBER AND EACH HAVING MEANS FOR ATTACHING THE ASSEMBLY TO THE MOLD BOARD, EACH OF SAID BRACKET ASSEMBLIES COMPRISING (A) A FIRST BRACKET STRUCTURE PROVIDED WITH A FIRST HOOK MEMBER TO ATTACH IT TO THE TOP EDGE OF THE MOLD BOARD AND A SECOND HOOK MEMBER TO ATTACH IT TO THE BOTTOM EDGE OF THE MOLD BOARD, (B) A SECOND BRACKET STRUCTURE ATTACHED TO SAID BEAM MEMBER AND SO PIVOTED TO SAID FIRST BRACKET STRUCTURE THAT THE AMOUNT THAT SAID DISC EXTEND BELOW THE BOTTOM EDGE OF THE MOLD BOARD MAY BE VARIED BY THE RELATIVE ANGULAR POSITIONS OF SAID BRACKET STRUCTURES, AND (C) MEANS FOR RELEASABLY LOCKING THE BRACKET STRUCTURES TOGETHER IN ADJUSTED ANGULAR RELATIONSHIP. 